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Comment by anilshanbhag | Hacker News Reader

This the wrong metric to look at. If you look at number of app reviews per week on Appannie, Flipkart averages roughly twice the number of reviews as Amazon with better average rating (4.6 vs 3.9). ~85% of India only accesses internet via mobile.

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I know very little about which metrics to look at but this seems like an even more wrong metric to go by. What does number of app reviews prove other than that the app is good at pushing people to review it?

Both apps don't urge users to go review their app on the play store. On this assumption, since both serve similar demographic of users - the average number of reviews written per week has to have a strong correlation to number of new users.

I think you're right. Flipkart is very aggressive with pushing their app. At one point they converted their website into just a big link to the play store. I never bought a single item from flipkart after that. I'd rather pay more than do business with a user-hostile company.

That just means flipkart is better at driving reviews, potentially with some bonus for doing so

Yeah, a lot of apps do this by being persistent. Though it doesn't explain the low rating.

That's a wrong metric as well because average order size and lifetime customer value will vary a lot in India.

From anecdotal evidence, Amazon seems to be more popular among younger crowds in big cities who are likely to spend more and often

That is a really interesting thought. How is website ranking a wrong metric compared to app reviews? Especially considering once upon a time Flipkart tried ditching their website and going app only.

Because a lot of the internet access(user count) in India is coming from smartphones on 4G. So, it might be that most ecommerce purchases are from apps not the site itself.

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